People

Mutya Buena has confirmed she is to quit chart-topping girl band
Sugababes. Buena, 20, who gave birth to a baby girl in March, leaves the group at the height of its popularity. Sugababes went to number one in October with
Push the Button, and their fourth album,
Taller in More Ways, is also a bestseller. But awards, parties and commercial success are no longer enough for Buena, who founded the group in 1998 with schoolfriends
Keisha Buchanan and
Siobhan Donaghy when they were all 13. The remaining band members, Buchanan and
Heidi Range, have already found a replacement singer so they can honour their touring commitments.

Liz Jones is quitting as chief features interviewer of the London Evening Standard to concentrate on her career as a novelist. The former Marie Claire editor joined the Evening Standard in 2002 as features editor and became chief features interviewer in a reshuffle this summer. Her frank account of her love life in How One Single Girl Got Married has attracted interest from a number of TV and film companies. The book evolved out of her columns in the Guardian and the Mail on Sunday.

Spin City actor Michael J Fox is in talks to make another Back to the Future movie. But he insists his character has to have aged as much as he has in real life. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, says: "I'm 44 years old and not interested in running around on skateboards."

The feel-good films made a star out of the baby-faced actor and inspired cheeky guitar-wielding popsters Busted and McFly.

Daniel Boulud, a chef at the eponymous New York restaurant, has been besieged by requests from the wealthy to cook at their homes. The craze for "star chefs at home" parties is so strong that Boulud has started a catering company called Feast and Fetes. Prices start at a modest £60 a head, but a dinner cooked by the man himself will set you back around £1,200. Boulud says: "This is obviously not something I can do every day. But lately there is such a strong demand for it that I have to say yes sometimes."

The Beach Boys are facing a million-dollar lawsuit after they failed to substantiate claims that rare memorabilia had been stolen and were due to be sold at auction. Lawyers for Cooper Owen plc, the auction house at the centre of the allegations, have confirmed they intend to sue the Beach Boys for slander, libel and interference with international business relationships. The 28 lots in question, which include the original lyrics and score for Good Vibrations, will go on sale in March 2006.

The new assistant chief constable of Merseyside police has become the highest-ranking black police officer in any regional force in the country. Patricia Gallan, 40, has previously worked for the National Crime Squad. She studied criminology at Cambridge University and is a qualified barrister.